Position 24:41.70N 017:44.70W

 

Decent day for wind.  Fairly calm start, we launched the A sail but only held it for about half an hour, before dousing it and using poled out genoa so that we could run deeper.  The boat really seems t like the set up, the wind increased up to 25 knots, we put one reef in the main in case of squalls, and then partially furled / unfurled the genoa according to the wind state.  At one stage it was pretty breezy – an ARC boat with A sail was sailing fast up behind us, but seemed to be overpowered and kept rounding up, until they doused it.  Our autohelm coped well – no need for any input other than to reflect wind shifts, although Andrej did some manual helming for a while.  Continued all through the night with good wind, and the days run has been just over 160 Nm.  At dawn Doug spotted a red strobe light, which turned out to be a fishing boat which we passed fairly close.  Deck lights and strobe – no nav lights or AIS.  Currently no other vessels in sight or in AIS range.  Are we going the wrong way?

 

On the domestic side, good meal last night thanks to Nadine, a veg stew with couscous cooked in Mr D cookpot. 

 

Outlook looks fairly dire on the GRIB files – we have yet to update them today, but there looks to be  big hole in the wind which we cannot avoid.  Probably have to do some more motoring for a day or so, after which we might be in fuel conservation mode.